Judith Glover North Yorkshire, United Kingdom
I am a ceramic artist based in York (UK), specialising in handbuilding sculptural unglazed stoneware pieces, fired to 1220 degrees C. My aim is to produce work that enhances the interior design of homes.
Using the age-old technique of coiling, my work is usually inspired by the work of landscape and seascape painters such as Joan Eardley, John Piper and JM Whistler. I have developed an approach to coiling that is particularly slow in terms of making and drying - around six weeks from start to finish, despite working on my pieces each day. As a result I make only about fifteen items each year. I have developed a technique of integrating clays of different tones and textures into a base clay of either a Derbyshire/Shropshire mix, or a Spanish Rokk clay. This is technically difficult as different clays have varying shrinkage rates both at the drying and at the firing stage. Very slow drying helps the pieces to remain intact and for the strata not to pull away from one another.
In terms of ceramic artists, I draw inspiration from the approaches of Jennifer Lee and Ashraf Hanna. Both of these contemporary ceramic artists handbuild their sculptural work, as I do - starting with a pinch pot and proceeding with coiling. They put particular emphasis on clean lines and on the quality of finish, as I also aim to do.
